Criminal offence data: FOI release

Information requested

The following data relating to the list of five offences below, for the following years: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 in Scotland:

1. The number of people held on remand after being charged with those offences in each year

2. The number of people convicted of those offences in each year

3. The number of custodial sentences following conviction for each of those offences

4. The average custodial sentence for those offences for each of the calendar years (in weeks)

• Breach of the peace
• Malicious mischief
• Behaving in an abusive or threatening manner
• Assault
• Criminal damage

Response

I enclose a copy of most of the information you requested.

Some of the information you have requested is available from Criminal Proceedings in Scotland. More specifically, for Criminal Proceedings in Scotland 2023-24 under the Supporting documents the main tables spreadsheet includes: convictions by crime type (Table 4b), custodial sentences by crime type (Table 9a) and average custodial sentence lengths (in days) by crime type (Table 10c). Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. The reasons why we don't have the information are explained below.

The Scottish Government publishes data on remand as part of Scottish Prison Population Statistics and data on people convicted and sentenced in Scottish courts as part of Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistics. These are separate and unlinked data sets that measure different things, in different ways and at different times and should not be considered directly comparable. For example, prisons statistics are based on daily population counts, whereas criminal proceedings statistics are based on when a sentence is given in court. This means a person present in the remand population in one year may not have their case conclude in court until a later year. For more details on how these statistics are produced please consult the links shared above.

Both data sets are based on financial year and not calendar year (as requested). The most recent Scottish Prison Population Statistics are for 2024-25 and the most recent Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistics are for 2023-24. We therefore cannot provide data by calendar year, nor remand data more recent than 31 March 2025 or proceedings data more recent than 31 March 2024. In addition, sentence lengths in Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistics are in days, not weeks.

This is a formal notice under Section 17(1)of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have part of the information you have requested.

The specific list of offences requested does not directly match Scots law or the statistical classification used across Scottish criminal justice statistics. More details on this classification are available in the User Guide for Recorded Crime statistics and Scottish Crime Recording Standard. We have endeavoured to match your requested list as close as possible. The table below shows what we have supplied against what was requested:

Requested offence	Supplied offence
Breach of the peace	Breach of the peace
Malicious mischief	Common law offence of Malicious mischief
Behaving in an abusive or threatening manner	Threatening or abusive behaviour
Assault	Common assault (including of an emergency or retail worker, but excluding Serious assault, Attempted murder or Sexual assault)
Criminal damage	Offences under Section 52 of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995

Data on Common assault for parts 2-4 of your request are already available to you in the Main tables of Criminal Proceedings in Scotland, mentioned above.

In specific response to your request:

1. Please see Table 1 (below).

2. Please see Table 2 (below) and, for Common assault, Table 4b of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistics (listed above).

3. Please see Table 3 (below) and, for Common assault, Table 9a of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistics (listed above).

4. Please see Table 4 (below) and, for Common assault, Table 10c of the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistics (listed above).

Table 1 People spending time in custody and receiving one or more remand warrants for Breach of the peace, Common assault, Criminal damage, Malicious mischief or Threatening or abusive behaviour. Scottish Prison Population Statistics 2024-25

Offence:	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24	2024-25
Breach of the peace	227	204	138	140	154	132	122
Common assault	3,260	3,261	2,789	3,066	3,116	3,204	3,145
Malicious mischief	43	57	68	48	55	61	54
Criminal damage	565	579	446	432	417	468	450
Threatening or abusive Behaviour	3,986	4,059	3,416	3,643	3,653	3,710	3,614

In Table 1, figures presented provide a count of individuals spending any time in custody in each financial year during which time they received one or more remand warrants for the listed offence. This is not necessarily the "index offence" as presented in published statistics. An individual may have multiple such warrants during their time in custody.

Some important caveats for Tables 2-4 are:

• Data are based on main charge. The main charge is the one that conferred the most severe penalty and may differ from a remanded person's index offence.
• Data from 2020-21 onwards were affected by the pandemic, including: court closures, reduced court capacities due to physical distancing measures, delays to cases where key participants were forced to self-isolate following positive COVID-19 tests and re-prioritisation of cases to deal with the resulting backlogs. Data from this period should not be considered indicative of long-term trends.

Table 2 People convicted in Scottish courts of a main charge of Breach of the peace, Criminal damage, Malicious mischief or Threatening or abusive behaviour, 2018-19 to 2023-24

Offence:	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
Breach of the peace	494	599	233	313	401	372
Malicious mischief	110	108	97	99	150	128
Criminal damage	1,140	1,100	710	850	1,000	973
Threatening or abusive behaviour	10,868	10,400	6,660	8,814	10,156	9,475

Table 3 Custodial sentences given to people convicted in Scottish courts of a main charge of Breach of the peace, Criminal damage, Malicious mischief or Threatening or abusive behaviour, 2018-19 to 2023-24

Offence:	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
Breach of the peace	73	74	29	27	34	36
Malicious mischief	20	21	29	10	20	19
Criminal damage	162	148	101	87	114	119
Threatening or abusive behaviour	1,464	1,324	908	1,032	1,038	1,126

Table 4 Average custodial sentence lengths in days given to people convicted in Scottish courts for a main charge of Breach of the peace, Criminal damage, Malicious mischief or Threatening or abusive behaviour, 2018-19 to 2023-24

Offence:	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
Breach of the peace	171	197	235	132	220	216
Malicious mischief	241	120	191	351	181	166
Criminal damage	137	142	178	157	124	131
Threatening or abusive behaviour	149	157	156	159	165	157

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